Proceedings of the International Conference on Edge Computing and Applications (ICECAA 2022)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP22BV8-ART; ISBN: 978-1-6654-8232-5
Hydroponic Farming using IoT
Vaibhav Kanhekar Tejas Deshbhratar
Electronics and Electronics and
Telecommunication Engineering Telecommunication Engineering
G H Raisoni College of G H Raisoni College of
2022 International Conference on Edge Computing and Applications (ICECAA) | 978-1-6654-8232-5/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICECAA55415.2022.9936366
Engineering Engineering
Nagpur -440016, India Nagpur -440016, India
kanhekar_vaibhav.et@ghrce.raisoni.net deshbhratar_tejas.et@ghrce.raisoni.net
Kamlesh Kalbande
Assistant Professor
Computer Science and Engineering (IoT)
G H Raisoni College of Engineering
Nagpur -440016, India
kamlesh.kalbande@raisoni.net
ABSTRACT- Civilization, wide fields, and soil-based
agriculture are all facing serious challenges. These
problems are mostly caused by a decline in per capita
land supply. Low land fertility is seen as a growing
problem in agricultural productivity; naturally, soil
fertility helps microorganisms grow with regular
cultivation. Frequent drought conditions and
unpredictability of climate and weather patterns, rise in
temperature, river pollution, poor water management,
waste of large amounts of water, and decline in
groundwater level are all conditions that can have a
major impact on the land. Feeding the entire population
may become impossible in the near future. S oilless culture
is becoming more common in today's rising world. Plants
are raised without soil in soil-less cultivation, by the help
of system like hydroponic technique, where the nutrients
to the plants are provided via observing the reading of the
pH, temperature & humidity from the Blynk App. This
system provides IoT based solution for monitoring
different parameters and controlling flow of nutrients for
hydroponic farming. This set-up is controlled and
monitored with the help of the node MCU ES P8266 via
Blynk app.
KEYWORD- Hydroponic, Nutrients, Soilless, Blynk
Application, potential of Hydrogen (pH), Temperature &
Humidity, Environment Control.
I. INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is declining over the planet. This is because
agricultural land has been converted for industrial and
residential uses. Economic and social factors, limited
resources, population increase, and economic growth all
contribute to this. Agricultural technology is currently
advancing quickly in urban environments, which is
referred to as urban agriculture. One effective answer to
the decrease of agricultural land is urban farming or
urban agriculture. Urban agriculture makes use of
underused or barren land in cities, such as roofs,
balconies, fields, and even building walls. Hydroponics
is one of the farming techniques utilised in urban
agriculture. The process of growing plants in a solution
of liquids, with or without the use of synthetic medium,
is known as hydroponics.
978-1-6654-8232-5/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE
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Yogeshwari Matey
Electronics and
Telecommunication Engineering
G H Raisoni College of
Engineering
Nagpur -440016, India
matey_yogeshwari.et@ghrce.raisoni.net.
Atul Deshmukh
Assistant Professor
Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
G H Raisoni College of Engineering
Nagpur -440016, India
atul.deshmukh@raisoni.net
The most popular hydroponic techniques are expanded
clay, coir, and perlite, vermiculite, brick fragments, polystyrene
packing nuts, and wood fibres. It has been proven that
hydroponics is a successful method for growing decorativ e
plants like herbs, roses, freesia, and leafy vegetables as well as
vegetables like tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and peppers. The
terms hydroponics and phonous are Greek words. The NFT
(Nutrient Film Technique), which can be organised straight up,
is one of the various varieties of hydroponics that can be
integrated to solve global problems in urban areas. Water will
be needed continuously in a hydroponic farming system, and
the amount will naturally decrease owing to solar evaporation
or plant photosynthesis. When compared to traditional farming,
when water is only used once during irrigation, this approach
can be described as extremely wasteful of water because far too
much is wasted.
In this hydroponic system solution, it is crucial to
carefully regulate the water temperature, water level, acidity
(pH), and high density of the nutrient solution. The control
system still employs a conventional or abstract technique of
modification, such as adding more nutrients if the nutrient
density is too high or too low. This is done at least once a day.
Farmers or proprietors of hydroponic farming systems
occasionally spend a lot of time tending to water or fertilizers.
This becomes a very important problem because it does not
work well.
This study focuses on developing a hydroponic farm
management system that can track water temperature, water
level, high density nutrient solution, and nutrient solution
acidity (pH) utilising sensors linked to microcontrollers via
the Blynk. Remote control and monitoring are possible with a
hydroponic farming management system. In order to grow
plants in a production environment without utilising soil,
hydroponics uses nutrients provided by water and modifies
growth conditions to increase yield. Hydroponically grown
plants produce more and grow quicker than those that are
planted in the ground. Pest and disease management is
excellent because those are grown in containers. The soil
itself is a reservoir of nutrients in natural settings, but it is not
required for plant growth.
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 When minerals dissolve in water, roots can
easily absorb them from the soil. If minerals are
included in the plant's artificial water source, it no
longer requires soil to grow. A method of growing
plants in water is called hydroponics using mineral
solutions rather than planting in the ground.
Information technology and communication
technologies are used to simplify and complete many
complex real-world operations. The Internet is crucial
in the application of information and communication
technology. Machine-to-machine communication
(M2M) is also at a high level at this time, with one
machine receiving information from other machines.
In the future, everything will be connected, and people
will be able to hear and interact with one another over
the internet. As a result, the Internet of Things was
born (IoT).
A hydroponic setup requires a small amount of
space and water, because it circulates and reuses water.
This avoids soil-related issues. This hydroponic plant
requires little space and can be placed in open spaces,
balconies, and courtyards. As a result, crops may be
planted in metropolitan areas where arable land is
scarce. Hydroponics has no negative impact on the
quality of the fruits and flowers produced. Vegetables
(such as tomatoes, spinach, cucumbers, and peppers)
and decorative plants can both be grown successfully
with hydroponics (herbs, roses, freesia, and leafy
vegetables).
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Hydroponics or landless farming has been widely used
in various countries due to its practicality and
environmental safety. This process can be considered as
the best alternative in areas where there are major soil
and water problems such as pests and diseases of the
soil, soil salts and water, chemical residues in the soil
and water, water shortages etc. In hydroponics, plants
are grown directly by providing a large amount of
nutrients in water. The composition of the nutrient
solution, the conductivity, pH and the concentration of
productivity and quality of plants growing in low-
oxygen environments are directly affected by oxygen.
In this section, a brief history and work related to
Hydroponic Farming using IoT is highlighted.
Planting in an unregulated environment is
exceedingly challenging due to the consequences of
global warming. Farmers that practise traditional
farming practises require high-quality, mineral-rich soil
[1]. It also requires operating costs for farming and
weeding and requires a lot of space and water. In the
case of annual crops, the yield does not meet the needs
of the customers and the expectations of the producers
in production. For these reasons, the method of farming
requires less demand on the cost factor and is key
parameters such as light, water temperature, and
humidity are easier to maintain and control throughout
the year [2]. A hydroponic farming technique, a way to
grow plants without soil and sunlight was introduced.
The plants were planted in this manner with only their
roots exposed to a combination of ashes and water
alternately of the subsoil [3]. The technique reduced the
expense of farming and labor by creating an indoor
climate that is independent of the weather.
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A microcontroller kit linked to a wireless network that
can detect moisture was used for irrigation and moisture
control, and temperature. An authorized remote person
monitored the real-time status of plant growth with the use of
this IoT technology. This technology effectively contributed to
the agricultural development through the use of small resources
[4]. Maintaining and managing crucial elements like light,
temperature, and humidity in a greenhouse is simple [5]. The
equipment can be customized to grow various plants planted at
the right temperature and humidity by using sensors and
actuators in the greenhouse to capture varied data [6]. The
wireless sensor system by using a smart phone to control
devices, communicate results to a cloud service, and monitor
rates was proposed in [7]. The study's findings, which were put
to the test with a series of questions utilising a technological
acceptability survey, were helpful for developing plants not
only in the technical sectors but also in the visible part [8].
Systems with IoT devices feature hardware that is
identical but uses less power and has a smaller footprint,
processing power, less memory even the communication
resources are called as resources constrained devices [9]. The
study [10] implemented IoT communication, by using blynk
app.
III. METHODOLOGY
The NodeMCU ESP8266 is the system's core
microcontroller board, which connects and controls all
components over the internet. Temperature and humidity
sensors are used to monitor the environment's temperature
and humidity.
Fig.1 Block Diagram of the proposed system
The system includes a pH sensor to continuously
track the pH of the nutrition fluid. Relays are employed in the
system to control the delivery of nutrients and keep the
solution flowing in a continuous loop with a specific delay.
There are two green loop solutions, i.e., type A and type B.
To make a concentrated solution 85 gram of the green loop
solution is dissolved in 1 liter of distilled water for type A
and type B separately. To make a dilute solution, 10 ml of
type A and type B solution are added to 1 liter of distilled
water. The nutrients are delivered to the solution tank
through a 5V DC pump. The Blynk app is connected to the
node MCU ESP8266 over Wi-Fi to get sensor output results
on the mobile device.
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I V. WORKING PRINCIPLE
 First the sapling preparation of spinach takes
place i.e., the seeds are sown into the soil
and they grow into saplings.
Fig.2 Flow chart of the proposed system
 The green loop hydroponic concentrated
solution is prepared, the hardware components
are assembled & the system is connected via
node MCU Esp8266 & all other components.
 The hardware system is initialized, where the
dilute water nutrient solution will flow from the
tank.
Tank 1 : Contains the main solution (dilute
hydroponic solution)
Tank 2 : Outlet storing container
Tank 3: Contains concentrated nutrient solution
 After setting all the components & hardware,
the blynk app is initialized.
 The water solution that has been prepared in the
tank 1 will now start flowing through the
system as soon as the motor is switched on.
 The reading of the pH, temperature & humidity
of the nutrients will be displayed on the blynk
app.
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 For controlling the delivery of nutrients , there is a
condition for establishing the system. If the pH range is
5-8, the system will continue to flow & proceed with
the transfer of nutrient from tank 1.
 If the reading of pH is less than 5, it will add
concentrate hydroponic s olution from tank 3 to tank 1.
 If the reading of pH is more than 8 it will flow water
solution from tank 1 to tank 2 or vice versa, till the
ideal range of pH is attained.
 This process will continue in a circular motion and will
provide the appropriate nutrients to the implemented
crop.
V. COMPONENTS USED
The circuit model is shown in fig.3. Relay is used to
control the DC motor and the temperature sensor is
monitored using node MCU esp8266.
Fig.3 Circuit
Node MCU (ESP8266) is the main microcontroller
board of the system, which is used to connect and control all
the components over the internet. DHT11 sensor is used to
monitor the temperature and humidity of the surrounding.[11]
pH sensor is installed in system to check real time pH of the
nutrient solution [12]. 2 channel relay is used in system to
control the supply of nutrients and to maintain the flow of
solution in continuous loop with some particular delay. These
sensors and relay, work on 5V DC current. 5V DC pump is
used to supply the nutrients to the solution tank. 12V DC
pump is used to circulate the solution from container 2 to
container 1 [13].
V I. RESULT ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION
As seen in fig. 5, the smart hydroponic farm method is
controlled and monitored using IoT-based APIs named
Blynk. Using an Android or iOS application, Blynk is a
platform that enables remote control of Node MCU modules.
Data on temperature, humidity, and plant growth are
transmitted to the blynk application by the ESP8266 Wi-fi
module and the NodeMCU ESP8266 module via several
sensors, including the DHT11, from the hydroponic model
shown in fig. 4 over the internet. The relay module is
connected to a 5V DC motor that may be operated by the
Blynk app in order to deliver the nutrients to the solution.
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Fig.4 Hardware model of the proposed system
With respect to the proposed system, the plant
growth from seeds to sampling and to fully grown plant
takes up to 50-60 days. To be precise, the seeds take about
7 days to germinate into sampling and after placing it into
the sampling holder it takes about 45-50 days to become a
fully grown spinach [14].
Fig.5 Software API (Blynk App)
The major role of Blynk application is to display
real time temperature, humidity, and pH meter reading.
Also, to control the flow of concentrated nutrient solution
via motor and relay, blynk application is used [15].
V II. CONCLUSION
Nutrients are supplied to the plants using a hydroponic
farming system that uses an IoT technology. For
improved environmental control, the sensor parameters
are continuously checked on mobile via the blynk app.
This technique allows plants to grow without the usage
of soil. In a hydroponic system, plant growth is faster
than in the soil. Because of the emphasis on the
environment and ecosystem, hydroponics is the most
perfect approach for many growers. The pH value is
calculated on a regular basis and meticulously
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maintained. Since hydroponically grown plants are not exposed
to soil-borne pests and diseases, the prices for soil preparation,
insecticides, and fungicides are reduced. The blynk app is used
to capture all data related to the functioning system so that it
could be monitored and controlled.
V III. REFERENCES
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